Sage, the business software company has discovered that more than 50% of small businesses think there is still a glass ceiling for women in the workplace.
35% of respondents to the Sage survey think that women are more empathetic than men in business and 22% believe women are more aggressive when it comes to dealing with colleagues. Only 12% think men are the more aggressive sex. In Scotland, 30% of firms are led by a female, but in the North East of England that drops to less than 10%.
Earlier this year, Vince Cable and Theresa May called on FTSE 350 companies to set goals to increase the number of females in the boardroom by this September, and by 2015 to have at least 25% of senior positions held by women.
The HR director at Sage UK, Adrienne Mcfarland, sees it as a positive move for the government to address boardroom inequality, but the recommended quotas do not appear to have had the desired impact on FTSE 350 firms.
She went on to say that it might be time to think about different ways to increase the number of women at the top of listed companies, maybe through mentoring or training programmes.
However, new research by Friends Life suggests that the glass ceiling will not come down this decade. 55% of women believe a gender pay gap will still exist in 2020 and 53% think it will still be hard for women to secure a senior role.
Public sector organisations have been making big strides when it comes to offering flexible working hours for working mothers, but they still have a long way to go. The majority of working mothers would like subsidised childcare, a shorter working week and the ability to do their work at home.
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